Monthly Archives: November 2012

Here’s a few suggestions in no particular order from classics to modern literature:

A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens. A classic that includes the miserly Scrooge and other iconic characters. Inspired by Dickens humiliating childhood, the book has been adapted to numerous movies, and to opera, theatre and ballet.

The Gift of the Magi (1906) a short story by O. Henry. A must read for the budding author for its classic, situational irony ending. It has been adapted to stage and screen, including Christmas Eve on Sesame Street in 1978.

The Greatest Gift (1939) by Philip Van Doren Stern. His self-published short story became a highly successful movie in 1946 — It’s a Wonderful Life. One of the best loved and most inspirational movies of all time.

The Christmas Wish by Richard Siddoway (1998). Adapted to a CBS movie in 1998. Siddoway was a member of the Utah House of Representatives.

The Christmas Quest by Richard Siddoway (a sequel).

The Christmas Shoes by (2001) by Donna VanLiere

The Christmas Blessing by Donna VanLiere. Both of VanLiere’s books were adapted into movies. She has several other Christmas themed books www.donnavanliere.com

The Christmas Box (1994) by Richard Paul Evans. While working as an advertising executive he wrote a Christmas story for his children. Unable to find a publisher or an agent, Evans self-published the work in 1993 as a paperback novella entitled The Christmas Box. He distributed it to book stores in his community. The book became a local bestseller, prompting Evans to publish the book nationally. The next year The Christmas Box hit #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, inciting an auction for the publishing rights among the world’s top publishing houses. Evans signed a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, who paid Evans $4.2 million in an advance. Released in hardcover in 1995, The Christmas Box became the first book to simultaneously reach the number-one position on the New York Times bestseller list for both paperback and hardcover editions. That same year, the book was made into a television movie of the same title, starring Richard Thomas and Maureen O’Hara.

The Christmas Jars (2005) by Jason F. Wright

The 13th Day of Christmas (2012) by Jason F. Wright. Wright is a national bestselling author.

The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado. A bestselling author, Lucado has more than 50 books with 80 million copies in print.

About First Edition Design Publishing:

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

J.K. Rowling follows up on the Harry Potter series by publishing an adult novel, “The Casual Vacancy,” about a political dispute in a British hamlet. The book sells 375,000 copies across all formats in its first six days on the U.S. market.

Oct. 3

Marjorie Scardino announces she will step down as chief executive of Pearson, which owns Penguin. Her departure puts the large publishing house’s future in doubt.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Hannah Brencher’s mother always wrote her letters. So when she felt herself bottom into depression after college, she did what felt natural — she wrote love letters and left them for strangers to find. The act has become a global initiative, The World Needs More Love Letters, which rushes handwritten letters to those in need of a boost.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Bookboard is an educational startup that gives parents and children access to a streaming library of children e-books on their iPad.

The Burlingame, California-based company is run by former Adobe executives, Fang Chang and Nigel Pegg. Bookboard is currently in a public beta. Users have a selection of over 300 children’s books. The public beta is free to use but starting in early 2013, Bookboard will adopt a business model similar to Netflix: subscription-based access will be priced between $5 to $10.

During an interview with Paid Content, Nigel Pegg discussed his goals with Bookboard: “We want to create an addictive chain reading experience. The more kids read, the more books they unlock.”

Other companies such as Oyster and 24symbols have tried to take the crown as the “Netflix of ebooks” but found difficulty locking in publishers to its service. Bookboard however has developed a working Neflix business model for ebooks which will benefit publishers financially. According to Pegg, publishers who allow access to Bookboard streams will receive royalties based on number of pages read and “how well their content does within our platform.”

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

“Europeans assume that, given the right knowledge and ideas, personal relations can be left largely to take care of themselves, and this is perhaps the most fundamental difference in outlook between Africans and Europeans.” Jomo Kenyatta, first president of Kenya, from his book Facing Mount Kenya, 1938.

Africa is not only a land of rich natural resources, but a land of rich culture dating back to the existence of the first man on earth which archeologists believe lived in Africa.

Egypt, the home of civilization had written sources dating back to prehistoric times (hieratic, demotic and hieroglyphics) which they used to preserve their customs and traditions for future generations.

Africa’s rich and diverse culture must be preserved for posterity; in the words of Gandhi “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” From Dakar to the Horn of Africa and from Cape Town to Alexandria, different cultural heritage and arts exist which however are gradually losing value as a result of ‘modernization’ and varying levels of interest shown in their preservation.

African arts and culture, though rich are sometimes “thrown to the dogs” and some governments appear to only become interested in them at the time of an important personality visiting the country, then, they quickly organise an arts and culture group to welcome them. Many children are not interested in learning the language and culture of their people. This is very unfortunate and we must not allow our culture to die. In the words of an anonymous writer, “Africa can only be as strong as the institutions she creates and sustains to feed her mind, body and soul”.

Swahili, Dagaare, Hausa, Yuroba, Akan among other languages can all be preserved at low cost using a simple technology called ‘an ebook’. An ebook is a ‘‘book in electronic format. It is downloaded to a computer, PC, Mac, laptop, PDA, tablet, smartphone or any other kind of reading device, and is read on the screen. It can have numbered pages, table of contents, pictures and graphics, exactly like a printed book’’.

This means that, the traditions and customs of Africa including the languages of the various ethnic groups can be preserved in this simple technology which can last for thousands of years for the future benefit of our children and children’s children.

In Scotland, for example, a media company called Giglets Limited is helping to preserve the modern heritage of an ancient language of the Celtic people called Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic), and ebooks are now playing a part of this strategy. How are they doing it? Giglets in partnership with the Gaelic Books Council (Comhairle nan Leabhraichean) and Stòrlann Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig is working tirelessly to encourage the use and support of this culturally rich language. Ebooks are used to teach and encourage the use of this language, within Scotland as well as in communities and by individual speakers as far afield as Nova Scotia in Canada, the United States, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

It is in this light that Giglets Lmited would like to partner with organisations and governments in Africa to help preserve African cultural heritage for posterity and to promote ebook education on the continent.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

If you’re an iOS user, there are a wide variety of choices for reading ebooks — there’s the first-party iBooks solution, as well as strong options from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Google. If, for some reason, those apps don’t meet your needs, Sony has just announced the availability of its Reader iOS app. Much like the aforementioned apps, Sony Reader lets you log in with your Sony credentials and download all of your purchased books to your iOS device. While the app itself doesn’t appear to do much to distinguish itself from the other ebook readers available for iOS, it’s an important part of Sony’s overall entertainment strategy — it wants to get its services on as many devices as possible. Reader is already available for Android, as is Sony’s Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited apps (the latter of which is also available on iOS). And while we’d be surprised if this app gained much traction on iOS, it’ll be useful for those out there using one of Sony’s E Ink readers who also want to read on their iPhone.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.